In 2010, justly coined "the year of the pitcher," home run totals in Major League Baseball are down significantly from the days when juiced sluggers took blazing fastballs from juiced pitchers and sent them soaring into the night on a more regular basis.
The steroid era hit its peak fewer than 40 years after Roger Maris set the big league home run record with 61 in 1961, but in just a four-year span from 1998 to 2001, Maris’ record was broken six times by three different players.
In 1998, Mark McGwire set a new record with 70 bombs, followed by Sammy Sosa’s 66. In 2001, Barry Bonds shattered McGwire’s mark with 73 of his own, and Sosa once again trailed right behind with 64.
The 1998 and 2001 seasons are thought of as the greatest, although tainted, home run shows in baseball history.
But 2010 has produced a legend of its own, even if the statistics are seemingly less impressive.
Toronto Blue Jays super-utility man Jose Bautista is setting the pace with 49 home runs this year with about two weeks left in the regular season. And while he will come nowhere near the records set by McGwire, Sosa and Bonds, Bautista stands in a category of his own in a year defined by a lack of the longball.
Of the top 10 home run hitters in 2010, Bautista is the only one with 40 or more — Albert Pujols is second with 39. The average for the top 10 is 35.4 home runs, and the median total is 34.
Bautista’s 49 dingers are 25.6 percent more than Pujols’ 39, which is 38.4 percent more than the top 10 average and 44.1 percent more than the top 10 median.
So what does this all mean?
Well, compare Bautista’s 2010 season to McGwire’s 1998 season, and one could easily argue that Bautista is having a relatively more impressive year.
McGwire’s 70 bombs were just 6.1 percent more than Sosa’s 66, 35.4 percent more than the top 10 average and 47.4 percent more than the top 10 median.
Meanwhile, while Bonds has the all-time home run record with 73 in 2001, Bautista’s current campaign isn’t too far off in his major league-wide dominance.
Bonds only had 14.1 percent more homers than Sosa’s 64 in 2001, yet his lead above the top 10 average (38.8 percent) and top 10 median (49 percent) both slightly outweigh Bautista.
Simply put, Bautista is demonstrating power in a pitcher-dominated game at a comparable, and arguably greater rate than McGwire and Bonds did during the steroid era.
Unfortunately, Bautista’s eventual home run total (he’s projected to hit about 53) will come nowhere near the roided titans of the record book, asterisks or not.
